28. A Peasant's Portrait (Matei Rudaru)

Grigorescu's extraordinary spirit of observation of physiognomic characteristics, his knowledge of the anatomy of the figure, learned at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and continued with the analysis of the themes of Phrenology, which concerned the psychologists and artists of his time (cranial typologies correlated with character traits), are already established aspects of the master’s art. Here, the artist is not concerned about the issue of a compositional portrait. A thin, almost gaunt male face is brought to the foreground and placed in the front, in a relation of striking closeness with the viewer. The accents of light, skilfully placed on the relief of his physiognomy, on the forehead, on the gaunt cheeks, on the aquiline nose, define the round shape of the small skull and the prominent cheekbones, emphasising the almost feminine delicacy of this bone structure. As if emerging from a medical lamp, used for the relentless highlighting of the details of the figure, the patches of light reconstitute a face glinting with inner life, shown in the glimmer of the eyes and on the tightly pursed lips, hidden by the moustache. The thin, defining lines of the face, the colours, the hair on the shoulders, the round hat tilted backwards, evoke Matei Rudaru, a character that Grigorescu has painted on several occasions and at various ages. Depicted with the harmonious features of his youth, with black hair and eyebrows, presented in his superb romantic "Iranian Prince profile" at the National Gallery (National Museum of Art of Romania, inv. 145), or in the similar smaller painting, preserved at the Iaşi Art Museum (G.Oprescu, Grigorescu, 1960, fig.83), an elder Matei Rudaru seems to have been the model for this unprecedented portrait, with his weathered face, a realistic picture speaking of the essence of the character and of the anthropological data of his race. The qualities of this small physiognomy study painted on wood with the sovereign freedom of brushstroke typical of Grigorescu, remind us of the exceptional double portrait "Turkish Prisoners" at the Cluj Art Museum. (I.B)

Literatura

[Ioana Beldiman, Gheorghe Cosma], „Nicolae Grigorescu, pictură-grafică”, [catalog expoziţie], Muzeul de Artă al Republicii Socialiste România, Bucureşti, 1984 Muzeul de artă al RPR, Galeria Naţională, Catalog, Editura de stat pentru literatură şi artă [1954] NICULESCU, Remus, „Expoziţia Nicolae Grigorescu”, catalog de, Muzeul de artă al R.P.R., Bucureşti, 1957 NICULESCU, Remus, „N.Grigorescu în amintirile şi corespondenţa lui Alfred Bernath”, în S.C.I.A., Editura Academiei RSR, tom 12, nr.2/1965, p. 219-261 OPRESCU, George, „Grigorescu”, Bucureşti, Ed. Meridiane, 1960 OPRESCU, George [-Remus Niculescu], „N. Grigorescu”, Bucureşti, Ed. Meridiane, 1961, vol.I VLAHUȚĂ, A, “Pictorul N. I.Grigorescu.Vieaţa şi opera”, Bucureşti, Socec, 1910

Dimenzije

width 23.5 cm, height 35 cm

Opis

oil on wood, signed lower right, in red, "Grigorescu"

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